Denver City Wire

The Colorado Independence Institute recently found Republican gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl’s plan to reduce the state’s income tax to zero to be more feasible compared to incumbent Gov. Jared Polis’ plan.

“As your governor, I WILL take on the challenge of bringing us to zero income tax,” Ganahl wrote in an Oct. 10 Facebook post. “My plan has been the work of some of our state’s most brilliant economists and is POSSIBLE to execute. A huge thank you to the Colorado Independence Institute for taking the time to compare the governor and I’s plan so that the people of Colorado can make an educated decision when voting.”

The Colorado Independence Institute analyzed Ganahl’s Zero Income Tax plan and released a report stating that the plan has “enough detail and specificity to light a traversable path to zero income tax,” according to a release on Ganahl’s website.

While Polis has also said he supports reducing the state income tax to zero, his plan to do so includes introducing a carbon tax to replace the revenue which the Institute’s report said would increase the cost of gas to $46 per gallon.

“Ultimately, Polis’ plan falls short of accomplishing the zero income tax goal while Ganahl’s plan maps out a more thoroughly fleshed out and workable, though still challenging, path to zero,” the Institute stated.

Ganahl's plan includes reducing the size of the state government, conducting an audit on the state budget to find areas of waste and fraud, implementing a hiring freeze in the state government, cutting slush funds, getting rid of special interest tax exemptions and working to attract new businesses to the state, according to her website.

The Institute report notes that aside from introducing an "exorbitantly high carbon tax," Polis' plan includes "almost no concrete policy proposals." The report concludes, "Ganahl has mapped out a plan that combines shrinking the size of government and offsetting lost income tax revenue with revenue from other sources without raising taxes. While ambitious, the numbers add up, and the plan could work with buy-in from legislators and the public. Her main obstacle to eliminating the income tax is not an inadequate plan but rather politicians and other political interests who want to continue growing state government."

On the University of Colorado Board of Regents, Ganahl oversees a budget of $5 billion and more than 30,000 employees. She has also served as the chair of the finance committee and the audit committee.

Ganahl defeated Greg Lopez in the Republican primary in June and will face off against Polis (D) in the November general election, according to Ballotpedia.